Connecticut election advocates vouch for public financing as Citizens United turns 5

By Hugh McQuaid ctnewsjunkie.com

Published
3:38 pm EST, Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Despite loopholes in Connecticut’s public campaign finance system, clean election advocates said Tuesday it still remains a model for other states to follow to reduce the influence of money in politics.

Several good government organizations staged a press conference in the Legislative Office Building to mark the fifth anniversary of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, which has dramatically increased the amount of money flowing into campaigns.

Five years after the high court ruled in Citizens United to remove restrictions on corporate spending on elections, the total cost of elections has inflated and large donors are increasingly crowding out small contributors, according to a study published by advocacy groups ConnPIRG and Demos. The report estimates that $3.7 billion was spent on the 2014 elections nationwide and concludes that a U.S. Senate candidate would need to raise $3,300 daily for six years to compete with the median haul of a 2014 winner.